There have been a couple of big news stories this week involving major multinational cement companies making large acquisitions. Holcim completed its purchase of Xella and CRH announced that it had agreed to buy Arcosa. These deals aren’t directly about cement but let’s look a little deeper into what’s been happening.
Holcim revealed in October 2025 that it would acquire Xella for €1.85bn. The transaction was completed on Friday 19 June 2026 following approval by the European Commission (EC). The main point the commission noted about the proposed translation was that its investigation found that Holcim and Xella were leading suppliers of AAC blocks in Romania, “...with a strong market presence and well-established brands.” Subsequently, Holcim offered to divest its AAC blocks plant in Adjud, Romania.
Holcim’s pitch for the deal in the autumn of 2025 was that the deal supports Holcim’s Building Solutions product line. Xella manufactures lightweight building materials such as walling products, autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and calcium silicate blocks including brands such as Ytong, Silka, Hebel and Multipor. The group’s ambition is to reach a 50:50 sales split between Building Materials and Building Solutions products by 2030. In 2025 it was roughly two-thirds for Building Materials and one-third for Building Solutions. Incidentally, this is a little ahead of Amrize’s share for its Building Envelope segment in 2025, although Amrize, Holcim’s former North America division, says that it does intend to increase the properties of this segment.
Building Materials, for Holcim, includes heavyweight building materials such as cement, concrete and aggregates. As part of the group’s plan to buy its way into the Building Solutions sector it made nine acquisitions in 2025. These were: Algimouss, Alkern Group and Société des Bétons de la Vallée de Seine in France; AMCO in Costa Rica, Comosa y Copce in Mexico; Compañía Minera Luren SA in Peru; CPC AG in Germany; Horcrisa in Argentina for ready-mix concrete; and an insulation solutions business in Poland. Note that one of these companies is a concrete producer but Holcim has classified it under its Building Solutions line in this instance. As discussed previously in this column, Holcim’s strategy to grow its Building Solutions division offers it one way to decarbonise its business.
The proposed CRH acquisition, by contrast, is based in North America and is focused on heavy building materials. It is also much bigger and is the group’s biggest acquisition to date. It has signed a deal to buy Arcosa, a US-based supplier of infrastructure-related products and services for US$8.6bn. The parts CRH has focused on in its press release are the aggregates and Engineered Structures businesses. The former operates 109 quarries and yards, nine asphalt plants, 19 terminals and delivered about 35Mt/yr of aggregate shipments in 2025. If the deal completes, CRH reckons that it will maintain its lead as the largest aggregates producer with over 265Mt/yr. The Engineered Structures business, meanwhile, further opens up the critical infrastructure market to CRH via grid modernisation, electrification and data centre construction projects.
Both the Holcim and CRH deals reflect the different market situations in the US and Europe. As ever with the big US-based acquisitions, the question remains whether CRH’s latest big deal will actually pay off. For example, should an AI-market crash happen then it might put a dent in plans to build more data centres and supporting infrastructure. Failure to draw up a US-Iran peace deal might also drag on the US construction market. One more question to consider with CRH is whether it too might want to spin-off its US-based business like Holcim did in 2025. Holcim’s acquisition of Xella, in comparison, seems more modest but it is targeted at a region with more sustainability legislation. In both of these examples the focus by cement companies on the classic heavy building materials trio of cement, concrete and aggregates continues to be challenged.
